Tech Buyout Firm Expected to Close Deal on Register.Com

By Matt Marshall, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

Nov. 5–Vector Capital, a San Francisco technology buyout firm, is expected to announce Monday that it has successfully closed its acquisition of Register.com, a global domain name registration service.

The closure comes after a brief public skirmish in August, when Vector first announced it had agreed to acquire Register.com for $200 million.

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and an owner of 13.2 percent of Register.com’s shares, had claimed the price was too low, and had vowed to vote against the deal when the shareholders met to approve it.

“The $200 million offering price does not come close to fairly valuing the business of this company,” Cuban said in August, a day after the deal was announced.

However, the approval went through easily, with shareholders approving the deal in a 5-1 ratio.

New York-based Register.com is known for its domain name management service, with nearly 3 million names under management — and close to 1 million small business, corporate and individual customers. The company registers Internet addresses ending in .com, .net and .org.

Public shareholders of Register.com will receive $7.81 a share in the merger. After the merger, Register.com will be privately held. Vector Capital could not be reached for comment Friday.

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